Nashville Teach For America Institute

Sunday, June 01, 2014 11:00 PM to Wednesday, June 18, 2014 11:00 PM

Nashville Teach For America Institute is in the past.

In summer 2014, Lipscomb’s College of Education will expand its role in preparing the highly successful Teach For America Nashville corps of teachers by hosting the TFA Summer Institute, a six-week on-campus training that not only prepares new teachers to enter the classroom with confidence, but also introduces them to their new community and the educational system.

Since 2009, Lipscomb has provided initial orientation and coursework to complete licensure and master's degrees for the Nashville TFA corps. The program has proven highly successful, and is among the most highly regarded programs in the Tennessee Higher Education Commission’s annual teacher effectiveness report card.

Now the college will host the summer institute for the 135 new teachers arriving from across the country to join the Nashville corps this summer. Teach for America recruits students from the nation’s top universities to commit to at least two years of teaching in urban and rural public schools.

Corps members will live on Lipscomb’s campus and work with as many as 1,500 Nashville public school students who would not otherwise have the opportunity to participate in a summer program. Corps members teach highly structured, supervised lessons, with constant feedback from local, veteran teachers and TFA coaches. Professional development is provided at lunch and the evenings are filled with lesson-planning. In addition, corps member will have the opportunity to volunteer with local nonprofits serving Nashville's families.

"We have found that the institute program is really good at growing teachers," Kyle Ali, TFA's managing director for pre-service training, said. "Corps members will develop an understanding of Nashville's unique educational context and the communities in which they will work and live.”